Nathan PetrelliMeredith Gordon: True Love?
by lilithtorch2
Summary: A girl with the power of fire meets a boy who can fly. Could this be true love? The story behind how Claire Bennet, a girl with self-healing powers, came to be. Nathan/Meredith, Nathan Petrelli/Meredith Gordon
1. Chapter 1: Meredith Gordon

I. Meredith Gordon

_I can't believe this is happening to me._

It just happens one day. The bright orange light flares up from her fingertips while she's doing her homework. Or, what was left of her homework now. Even the pencil burns up in flames, dropping blackened ashes on the semi-blackened table. The fact that she has to redo her homework again isn't the problem.

_No one should know except me._

Fire alarms constantly setting off. Unexplainable. Her favorite teddy bear, half burned but lying there on the partially charcoaled bed. She's been careful to hide the signs. The teddy bear was carefully placed so that if you looked at it from the entrance to her room, you wouldn't think something was wrong. The partially charcoaled bed was covered strategically by the rest of stuffed animals. People looked at her suspiciously, but she didn't care. As long as they didn't know what _really_ was causing this, she would be fine.

_It's a secret._

But she still went to school as usual, with the usual charming face greeting the girlfriends and the usual flirty voice with the attractive guys. The usual boring (and tough) classes. The usual teachers. The usual school-place gossip about who was dating who.

_Fire._

Made smoking that much easier, really. But she bought the lighters, you know, just in case. In case they asked.


	2. Chapter 2: Nathan Petrelli

II. Nathan Petrelli

_What's happening to me?_

It just happens one night. Sleeping, dreaming of jumping out the window and flying like an eagle, and then waking up, finding himself hovered miles aboveground, a bird's eye view of the rooftops of his neighborhood.

_No one should know._

He wants to be a hero. He admires the heroes of the comic books, indestructible, confident. More importantly, they made a difference. They made this world less boring. It will improve his popularity, too, if he was a hero.

_It's a secret._

Sometimes he will try to fly. It doesn't always work, and he'd always have to explain to his parents that the broken bones and bruises were from playing football at school. That excuse was believable enough; even though he was basically your average, awkward guy, he was still physically fit enough to be on the football team. His dad would glance at him, when he made the excuse, and his mom would continue to stare at her cooking, as if pretending not to know about something… _About what?_ Meanwhile, his brother Pete was nowhere to be found; he was probably outside, on another one of his dates with that dark skinned girl, Simone, still aimlessly wandering around in life.

_Fly._

Sometimes his mother was always pushing for him to join more and more clubs. It was she, after all, who'd decreed him fit for the football team and negotiated with the coach to give him a chance even though tryouts were long gone. And she often scolded him for not having been selected as class president two years in a row. _Next year,_ he angrily thought to himself. _I'll prove myself to her._ But when the nagging got too much for him, he found the only way out: flying, whenever he could and had the chance to. The sky was the only temporary place away from this hellhole.


	3. Chapter 3: My Angel My Hero

III. My Angel. My Hero.

_Curioser and curioser._

She is huddled inside an empty shelter near where she lives, fascinated and a bit afraid at the same time. Now that she is mostly able to keep the flames from bursting forth unexpectedly, the next step is to control its intensity. Sometimes the flames flicker and die out. Sometimes the flames suddenly flare up. And that's when it happens. She doesn't realize that she can do that, until that point, like a human bomb, and she hopes it will never happen again. She is in awe at the fires coming from her skin, before the smoke chokes her with its black clouds, the tears welling up in her eyes. She's losing conscious, she can't find a way out of here…

_Savior._

It's during one of those flights of freedom that he meets her, the blonde haired, blue eyed angel trapped inside the clutches of hell fire. It's during one of those flights that he swoops down and saves her, a clumsy knight in shining armor.

_What are you doing here?_

She doesn't question how he got there when she opens her eyes and finds his arms around her, as if comforting her, assuring her that everything would be alright. He doesn't question what she is doing, alone, in an old abandoned building way past midnight. Only one thought crosses the minds of two passionate teenagers filled with wonder and believing in immortality.

_My angel._

_My hero._


	4. Chapter 4: Ambition

IV. Ambition

The secret trysts. The curious first bursts of pure love, hard embraces. Somehow, her existence gives him the confidence he needs to succeed; by senior year, he's class president. Even his mother is proud of him, making sure to mention his name to her friends whenever they come over for dinner. He feels accomplished, and has a growing taste and desire for power that he's never felt before. Now that he's achieved his ultimate goal, he finds he only wants more.

"Something's holding you back."

"Nothing's holding me back, mom! What are you thinking?"

His mother's words plants seeds inside his mind.

_He needed to win._

She knows it is going to end somehow. But for years afterward, they try their hardest to keep the connection going. "We'll figure it out together," she tries to say to him, but more so to herself. "We can get through this." She watches him move further away from what binds them together as one, watches him move on to bigger and greater things. While she waits, painfully understanding and admiring him at the same time, in the shadows.

But despite all this, she bears news that amazes them both.

"I'm pregnant," she says simply, looking at him, eagerly anticipating his response.

The news surprises him very much. He's very happy but then stops and considers what this means for him. A child born out of wedlock? He feels confused, but decides not to think about the matter for now. What matters is that they are going to have a family.

Then his mother has to find out. About them. About the baby. Not that she didn't already know; as long as nothing hindered her dear son's career yet, she would always turn the other way, pretending.

The baby, however, changes everything.

"_She's_ holding you back," his mother scolds.

He tries to defend his blonde-haired lover.

"She isn't!" If it weren't for her, he wouldn't even be here now.


	5. Chapter 5: Goodbye

V. Goodbye

But just months after Nathan finds out Meredith's pregnant, they _both_ decide to end the relationship, looking at each other and saying it at the same time. _Jinx._ A wistful laugh. They know his mother knows, that his mother disapproves. They wish it could have gone so much more differently. It had to be their little secrets, him with his flying and her with her burning, that did them in, they knew. They both look back. What would they have done differently? What had they done wrong? Could it have lasted if they both... but they weren't in high school anymore. That old ridiculous notion that hopes and dreams were real. Real was the fact that he was a burgeoning politician, with ambitions and goals. Real was the fact that she would never be good enough for his mother. Real was the fact that they cared for each other. But real was the fact that caring could only go so far.

And the baby… what about the baby? He clings onto a last string of hope. He would give up everything to stay with her if she'd just say the words he needed to hear.

But she shakes her head _no_ instead.

_Reality, remember?_

"I'll take care of the baby," she insists. _You have your whole career ahead of you,_ she knows this for a fact. She's willing to sacrifice her love for him just to see him do something she believes will make truly him happy.

But then she always manages to find him after that.

Especially if something goes wrong.


	6. Chapter 6: Explosion

VI. Explosion

Meredith didn't know what it was that made her scared. She thought she'd heard something, really, she did! But when she looked around, there was no one there. It'd been awhile since the flames had gone from her fingertips. There was someone there, she was quite sure of it!

_The baby. She had to protect the baby._

Instinctively, Meredith moved from the kitchen to the baby's room. Her daughter was there, safe and sound. And someone, something, was _there!_

_My baby!_

"Who are you?!" She turns around frantically, looking for her intruder. All she cares for is the baby's safety; ironically, she doesn't know that her panic is flying from her fingertips in hellish crimson fires.

_My baby!_

That's when she realizes her mistake. She's exploded. Just like that night. She doesn't realized what is going on, until too late.

She fainted.

Miraculously, she wakes up hours later, finding her greatest fear come true again. The room was a heap of darkened ashes. And the baby room, completely demolished, charred. Nothing to be seen. _Her baby! _She chokes out a sob, believing her beloved baby girl to be dead.

And Nathan wasn't there to save her this time.

From thereon afterward, she lived in a trailer park, numbing away the guilt in lung cancer and cigarettes.

And sometimes, even though she knew it would never happen, she wished upon a star, hoping her daughter was somehow alive.


	7. Chapter 7: Hell's Angel

VII. Epilogue: Hell's Angel

He was the rookie. Nameless, for now, just a simple paper factory worker at Primatech known only as "Mr. Bennet." Claude, the invisible man and his friend, was the one doing the major lifting. He, meanwhile, was supposed to stand outside, on the watch for curious onlookers. Claude had assured him that everything would go fine. All he needed to do was to put the tranquilizer on her, inject the isotope, and that would be that. But when Mr. Bennet heard the explosion and the door hit him, he recovered, and flew into the apartment, looking for his friend.

"What just happened?!"

"It doesn't matter, I'll be fine. Get the baby!"

He searched frantically in every single room. Crashing into doors. And there she was, a plump little blonde-haired girl, strangely unharmed from the explosion, holding out her hand to his…

And smiling.

A wave of feeling-was it fatherly?- rushed over him. He shook his head. First, he had to get the baby out of here, away from the fiery remains. Then get Claude the hell out of here too. He didn't know it, but he would become her protector.

And try to give her a normal life.

_Daddy's little girl._


End file.
